Masks
by damian111
Summary: Eons before the age of the dragonborn, before even the dragons ruled our story unfurls, connecting two street urchins, a vicious mercenary known for expensive collections and a young man being drawn in to a mysterious cult.


_My father always used to stand on the hill at the end of our field and scan the landscape below; it was a beautiful sight, watching the sun set across the river. The water seemed to dance and glisten across the valley. He'd stand there with a solemn expression on his face, resting his wide chin on the handle of his shovel and he'd say quietly_

_"This land, boy...It may look serene and at peace but there's something beneath it...darkness...something black...and it wants to feed, and it will."_

_It will._

There was something about the constant humming and cranking, turning, clicking, hissing and clunking that comforted Sofia, reminded her of home, sleeping next to the forge to keep warm. Starosti on the other hand thought differently, his hands wringing automatically as he peered around, his scaled tail twitching behind him, the sounds didn't ease him, they made him think something was still alive down there, who knew what horrors the vengeful dwarves had left for them to find. After pondering various horrible fates he attempted to state his case to the girl, but she was down the corridor, his heart leapt into his mouth as he saw her leaving him behind so he leapt to his feet and scurried after her. This was no place to be alone.

The duo peered around a corner, torch light seemed to be flickering at the other end of the dark corridor, Sofia frowned, fifteen feet of dark Dwarven corridor was a lot, and although she hated Starosi's whining, he was right, there could be several pointy things waiting to impale them, the Dwarves seemed to have a thing for blades. The girl cupped her hands together and whispered into the space between them;

" Lyse min vei". A dim ball of cyan light materialised as she smiled and then blew on it, sending it high up into the middle of the corridor, it seemed clear so she nodded back to the worried Argonian and pressed on toward the firelight, curious about what was there.

As far as Dwarven ruins go, this one was fairly well hidden, tucked away in a valley between two peaks. The only people who found it were those who stumbled upon it by accident, most likely near death anyway, those who had spent months of research, attempting to find it or those who had stolen the months of research from those who were trying to find it...like Sofia. Unfortunately for her, the particular person she'd stolen it from was standing right outside the ruins.

Valyk Mercan was a collector. A damn good collector too, he'd been across Tamriel searching for the things that even the thieves' guild brushed off as ridiculous. Because with enough money, you don't need a lockpick or a sword, money is a weapon far more potent than any kind of poison, money poisons the soul and Mercan knew it. Recently he'd decided to take on a job, he normally wasn't for hire, but the pay was astronomical and his team was renowned for getting artefacts out of dangerous places, the job was simple, acquire a lexicon from an old Dwarven ruin, simple really, the location was unknown, but after a few months of research, they'd found its supposed location, and even though some stupid brat had stolen the plans, Valyk came through as always...smiling.

He put his hand on the brass door, tracing the intricate carvings with his fingers, he smiled wryly and then let out a small whistle, prompting four men behind him to come up to the door, slowly they began to work at it, chiselling away at the hinges and locks, Valyk took a step back and looked up to the cold grey sky, snow was falling heavily, there was something almost mesmerising about it, the man shook his head and came back to reality, the snow was his friend today, covering his tracks. If the girl was in there, she wouldn't be coming back out again.

Sofia slowly crept her way into the light, simply a torch bracketed to a wall, nothing out of the ordinary; she did wonder however, how had it kept alight for so long? If the Dwemer had disappeared so long ago, who kept these things burning? The girl clicked to signal that the Argonian was okay to follow along; she kept on going to the door at the far end of the room and tried it before heaving a heavy sigh, locked. She figured as much, as if the ancient race of geniuses were going the leave their treasury unlocked. Sofia put her ear to the door, no sound coming from inside...Wait...There was sound coming from inside, laughing...laughing! The girl smiled, someone had managed to get in, that meant they could too, she then frowned realising if someone else was in there, there was no way they were leaving with the loot, she shrugged slightly to herself and looked around, seeing if there was an access point in the room, her eyes very slowly scanned the walls until they rested on a grill, lying on the wall next to an open hole...the ventilation passage, in theory they lead to every room in the place, the girl quickly signalled to Starosti to follow as they both scurried into the passage, heading to the treasury room, the girl paused however, when she heard a loud clunk from somewhere above her.

**_CLUNK_**

The mighty door fell off its hinges at last, sending a blast of dust and snow out toward the group, Valyk calmly held his hand to his face to shield his eyes, a smirk creeping across his face.

The man stepped in first, looking around into the gloom as his team followed him; he held his hand out to his left as one of the men dropped a crossbow into it. He gripped it firmly and headed deeper into the entrance hall, the grand architecture of the Dwemer never ceased to amaze him, his eyes trailed up to the great arches that seemed the only thing that prevented the entire thing from collapsing, not that he had any suspicion it would, this was building at its best. At the end of the hall Valyk spied a couple of chairs, bed rolls and various bits of food and old bottles around, someone had been here, judging by the still warm campfire he gauged that they'd moved off this morning. His men continued to dismantle the doors in the room and as he headed down the various corridors, he noted most of the sentries had been taken out already, although one seemed to have put up a fight, blood was splattered all over the wall, as well as on the strange mechanical warrior's sword. The collector shook his head with a "tut" and moved on, heading down toward the treasury, where the lexicon lay in wait.

As the two arrived at the vent that opened into the treasury, they peered into the room, it was a circular area filled with various trinkets made of gold, odd machinery and bits and bobs that could be worth thousands, or nothing at all. There were three people in the room, two of them were heartily chugging on mead, adorned in crowns encrusted with huge precious stones and draped in various expensive jewellery, all the while singing and laughing, the third man sat slumped in a corner, slowly losing blood, clutching onto a gold goblet, most likely the closest thing he could find, even he seemed happy despite the fact he'd be dead in a matter of minutes. Sofia looked disheartened by the fact these men would probably simply kill them if they walked in, she sighed and Starosti watched, feeling sorry for the girl, he knew it meant a lot to her and that this could end their days of trouble but...there was no way they'd get past the drunken idiots in the treasury, but then the Argonian heard something, something Sofia could not hear, an odd buzzing, of course, the place was full of mechanical sounds, but...this sounded different, like it was getting closer, Starosti grabbed Sofia's and gently pulled her back to the vent, she looked a little angry and startled at first but then she heard the sound too.

This was it. The final door, the anticipation in the air was almost palpable. Valyk loved getting to the final door, and everything except the lexicon was his for the taking, he was snapped out of his train of thought when the door slammed onto the ground, as the dust cleared, Valyk saw two petrified drunk men frozen on the spot.

"Gentlemen...how lovely to see you made it into the treasury room first, unfortunately, your quest has been in vain as we need this loot and your silence and while I understand a bribe would be a much less messy way of dealing with this...these desperate times necessitate desperate measures".

Valyk grinned with the same predatory smile that a crocodile has when hunting.

As Sofia and Starosti watched the door fall open, the girl jumped a little and watched as the men looked terrified. They couldn't get a clear view of the man addressing them, but Sofia knew that voice anywhere, and she knew what was about to happen, she watched as the man's minions advanced on the two hapless bandits, Starosti noticed the girl was about to scream and wrapped his hand around her mouth to stop her, she was too struck with horror to do so herself and as the Argonian stopped her from giving away their location, she saw the boy's true nature, he was no coward...he just cared too much for others. Slowly the men cleared the room, Valyk stepped up to the central stand, on it resting a strange looking cube, he seemed to stare at it for a moment before plucking it from where it rest. He dropped it in his bag and then made a signal to the rest of the men as they began slowly gathering up the loot into their own bags, they cleared the room quickly, leaving nothing at all.

_"This land, boy...It may look serene and at peace but there's something beneath it...darkness...something black...and it wants to feed, and it will."_

_It will._


End file.
